World Wheelchair Curling Qualification Event Begins Saturday

The World Wheelchair Curling Qualification event will take place from 5-10 November in Lohja, Finland, at the Kisakallio Sports Institute.

The event is open to mixed gender teams that have not already qualified for the 2012 World Wheelchair Curling Championships.

Teams participating in the event include: Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Slovakia and Switzerland.

Of the nine teams, five are led by skips that have competed in the Paralympic Winter Games. The teams will play out a round-robin format, with the top four finishers facing off in the elimination rounds beginning on 10 November.

Both the winner and runner-up at the event will qualify for next year’s World Championships, which will take place in Chuncheon City, South Korea from 18-25 February and allow teams to earn qualification points for the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

Canada, China, Korea, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Sweden and the USA have all already qualified for the World Championships.